Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (Jewel Case)
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast returns you to the role of Kyle Katarn, a mercenary who fights for the Rebellion in its uprising against the Empire. Several years have passed since Kyle avenged his father's death and saved the Valley of the Jedi from Jerec and his Dark Jedi. Not trusting himself against the Dark Side, Kyle gave his lightsaber to Luke Skywalker and vowed never to use it again. When a new and menacing threat to the Galaxy emerges, Kyle must reclaim his past in order to save his future. Employ a unique mix of weapons, Force powers and your lightsaber as you battle in thrilling single and multiplayer modes.
In the tradition of the multi-award-winning Star Wars: Jedi Knight, Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2, Jedi Outcast features rebel agent Kyle Katarn in exhilarating first-person action. Several years have passed since Kyle avenged his father's death and saved the Valley of the Jedi from Jerec and his band of Dark Jedi. Allowing his Force powers to languish for fear of falling to the dark side, Kyle entrusted his lightsaber to Luke Skywalker, vowing never to use it again. But when a new and menacing threat to the galaxy emerges, Kyle knows he must reclaim his past in order to save his future. LucasArts is developing Jedi Outcast in partnership with Activision's critically acclaimed Raven Software. Players assume the role of Kyle as they employ a unique mix of weapons, Force powers, and the lightsaber in both single- and multiplayer modes. Jedi Outcast features expanded and enhanced use of the lightsaber, with new attack and defense moves. Tap into the powers of the Force, including jump, push, Jedi mind tricks, and more. Employ combat or stealth, depending on the situation. When a fight is necessary, be at the ready with an arsenal of weapons: stun baton, Bryar blast pistol, and blaster rifle to name but a few. Explore breathtaking Star Wars locales such as Cloud City, the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4, Nar Shaddaa, the smugglers' moon--plus some never-before-seen locations. Multiplayer options include deathmatch, saber-only deathmatch, and team capture the flag.
Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (Jewel Case) Accessories
 Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (Jewel Case)
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 (Jewel Case)
Star Wars: Dark Forces (Jewel Case)
Star Wars Republic Commando
Star Wars: The Best of PC (Empire at War, Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars Battlefront, Republic Commando)
Star Wars Republic Commando
Star Wars Battlefront II
Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (Jewel Case) Reviews
There are all sorts of weapons and powerups to pick up, as well as really cool battlegrounds to play in. It becomes more like Star Wars Battlefront, where you can choose from a variety of characters, any that are featured in the game, and play against robot players that you can put as many of as you like in. This means that you have a completely different game on your hands. Much to my disappointment, we didn't have the right connection speed or something to actually DO the multiplayer. But, I discovered that you can host up a multiplyer game, but without actually going online. I played the story for a while, enjoyed it mightily, until that got slow.
I was ready for the lightsaber action, yo. I don't currently own this game. That doesn't come until later in the game, and I was about 9 when I played it, so I kept getting stuck. If you choose a force-weilding character, you can choose your specific force powers and kick butt. I'm going to buy it soon, and so should you. Anyway, I decided to try the multiplayer.
Oh, and I'm not Blake, I'm his son. When I did play it, I borrowed it from a friend for about a month.
When I first got this game it was so much fun. Later I got Jedimod and it became sooo fun. But as I played it more and more it got more boring.
Loads of fun. A must have for any gamer who wants to own a historical, impossibly fun game. This is great, the way you can switch between a first person shoot-em-up to a lightsaber 3D action game.
Some really fun cameos from classic trilogy characters as well as the great sound effects and music we've all be brainwashed with throughout our lives. Well worth the purchase. great gameplay, fine storyline and tons of hidden goodies. Very challenging first person shooter that turns into a great lightsaber romp in third person once you obtain a lightsaber.
Many players disliked how the balance or the saber combat worked and so dozens of mods were created, all with a different idea of how lightsaber fighting "ought to be." According to many players, the Dark Side of the Force (which was arguably the most popular style of play online for most players who chose to play with Force enabled) was unbalanced, being slightly more powerful than Light. These controversies raged mostly for those who played one on one duels with force enabled as in a full on deathmatch, any tactic could be used, and so many more counters existed. JK1 was a great game, but not noticed by the majority of FPS gamers who were too busy playing Quake 2 and Unreal. Boss fights consist of realistic (for Star Wars) opponents for a Jedi Knight. On the other hand the increased variety in saber combat, with the many new moves and multiple styles (borrowing heavily from games like Heretic II and the excellent Bushido Blade series on the PSX) does much to make up for these oversights to increase replay value. Backtracking a little. Due to heightened damage, the lightsaber in MP is much more useful, allowing you to quickly dispatch one enemy to move onto the next one.
I don't think even the worst puzzles in JK1 were this aggravating or frustrating. The story begins where the past game left off, with skant references to events of Mysteries of the Sith. In MP, heal is an instant use power that grants you restored hit points instantly. It seems more like it was designed by a rich madman to frustrate a Jedi infiltrator like yourself. thougn on the easy difficulty you can "auto dodge" some of these shots like Neo from the Matrix), you'll finally begin to learn the ways of the Force (again) and become a Jedi. This created an atmosphere of paranoia and fear among gamers and a certain mistrust of admins (who could "cheat" by making themselves invulnerable or kill other players instantly without skill). JK1 was a game ahead of its time (and delayed quite often to the great annoyance of players) in many ways, but lacked some of the features that Quake and Unreal players had come to taken for granted over the years, namely a lot of useful multiplayer features, and robust modern graphics. The winner of the duel received full health and was returned to the playing field.
There's also Holocron FFA where instead of user defined Force powers based on a limited number of Force points, powers are acquired by picking up "Holocrons" (floating cubes of lost Jedi/Sith wisdom) much like "Rune match" in Quake3 and Unreal Tournament. Other battles consist of multiple lightsaber wielding opponents or swarms of stormtroopers or Nar Shaddaa alien thugs. "Game experience may change online," indeed. In Single player the powers operate differently than in multiplayer.
After the 1997 release of the hit Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight (a superior sequel to the DOS-based Star Wars single player FPS known as Dark Forces), players waited patiently for "Star Wars: Obi-Wan" which was being billed as the "next Jedi game" and the "successor to JK." Sadly, this game saw multiple delays. only these two could hurt each other, and they were limited to only using force jump, lightsaber throw, and lightsaber attacks and acrobatic moves. The graphics are pretty for the Quake3 engine, and the vistas are as vast and vertigo inducing as the ones you remember from the first Jedi Knight. Everything looks as you'd expect it to in the Star Wars universe, and many of the designs of the weapons and vehicles are taken straight from the official "Star Wars Essential Guides.".
It's not explained why Kyle Katarn, the hero for hire from the previous adventures, who became a Jedi in the second game to avenge his father's death (like an alternate take on the familiar story of Luke Skywalker mixed with some Han Solo for grittiness to give the character a bit more edge), suddenly has a blue lightsaber instead of an orange one (as he had in MotS). Force Heal in SP makes you kneel and "meditate" to slowly increase your HP (at level 2 you can fight, but you can't run around while healing, and at level 3 you can fight normally and heal much more rapidly by tapping the button anytime). A rather good expansion called Mysteries of the Sith was released within four months of the original game. These detract from the FPS elements and the lightsaber fighting. In MP, Force speed simply makes you run faster for a limited time, like in JK1/MotS.
The multiplayer mode was underused, featuring only a handful of Deathmatch ("Jedi Training") and CTF maps, over two dozen skins, and a variety of lightsaber colors and force powers to choose from (between "Dark" and "Light" Jedi and neutral powers used by both, plus secret Jedi ranks that could use some of each). The game modes consist of CTF, Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch ("Free for All") and a tournament mode, just like Quake 3's basic modes. Another problem was the presence of mods in the game that were designed by members of the "honor community." Many of these mods seemed to have vindictiveness in mind, since they gave the admin the ability to "punish" players whom they felt had violated rules, at whim. Each power has three levels of power, as opposed to four from the previous games. Jedi Outcast on these servers became more like a 3-D version of IRC than a combat experience. Merc was unbalanced, since the Jedi were simply far more powerful than the Merc, who started only with the basic bryar pistol, stormtrooper rifle and bowcastor, all slow projectile firing weapons that Jedi could easily dodge or reflect back at the shooter with the lightsaber (or worse, pull away with the Force, though the bryar pistol and stun baton could not be pulled).
Probably the most ludicrous example is a sequence in which you must travel from multiple suspended color coded rooms to find multiple symbols to enter a security code for a starship. Keep in mind that this sequence was supposedly built for ordinary humans to operate. You'll find yourself perhaps, as I did, saving and reloading in order to face the same opponents again and again in the excellent saber battles. Most of the in-game weapons featured multiple modes of fire, with innovative and fun modes like the "sticky rockets" of the Rail Detonator that could be attached to surfaces or even enemy bodies, and Sequencer Charges, mines that could be laid on almost any surface for instant or proximety detonation. Raven decided to create a feature in which two players in a deathmatch game, could "challenge" each other and these two players would be given protection from the rest of the lasers and explosions on the map. The missions are varied, taking you to different planets, space stations, and aboard ships in a predetermined order. There is some NPC interaction, but it's kept to a minimum, besides the missions you take on with Jan Ors (if she dies, you automatically lose the mission) or some later ones with Lando Calrissian (voiced by the one and only Billy Dee Williams).
The saber combat is less cinematic, but more precise and tight (in the SP game, swing animations were chosen by the computer in most cases, which looked cool, but felt more loose and imprecise). The Duel (tournament) mode was somewhat popular with those who wished only to lightsaber fight, but FFA was the most popular. All these things we take for granted now, but back in 1997, they were in short supply and JK fans had to mostly do without. In any case, he's given up the Force and renounced the ways of the Jedi, allow the player the convenient task of facing the first several single player missions using only familiar FPS style weapons (familiar to Dark Forces players anyway), blasters, grenades, a sniper rifle, etc. There was also some controversy among players over the game balance (even after the patches).
simple run and gun (or team based play) using all the powers and weapons available, rather than the repetitive "dueling only" with the lightsaber. Jedi Outcast essentially takes the original game, and updates it with all the bells and whistles people have come to expect from the (not antiquated but still appreciated) Quake 3 engine, in the loving care of Raven Software (Heretic II, Soldier of Fortune, etc), a company with a talent for taking Quake engines and using them to create derivative, but excellent games. For example, the admin could type "amslap" to make a player fly across the screen, taking damage, without a way to defend against it. They tend to do little damage and have low accuracy. When the PC version was finally cancelled, and a scaled down version of it was released for the Xbox in 2001 (to scathingly negative reviews), many fans had almost given up hope of ever wielding the lightsaber in a worthy adventure on the PC again.
There's another portion of the game in which a key must be obtained from an Imperial officer (one of many such sequences), but the officer in question can be killed by Force nudging or blasting him into a bottomless pit quite easily, before you know that you were supposed to take the key off his corpse, forcing you to reload from an earlier save (or else cheat to progress). It's very tempting to use cheats to skip over some of the platform/puzzle segments. The multiplayer component is quite fun, though the force powers, weapons and lightsaber mechanics are very different from single player. Raven patched the game twice, at first weakening the lightsaber, and introducing modifications that made the lightsaber fighting in MP more like that seen in SP. This title was only surpassed the following year by Jedi Academy, a flawed, but (I feel) superior game (after the patch, and a few mods such as Open Jedi Project and Asteroids Mod). Of these, probably the best, and most innovative at the time was 1997's Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, itself the polygonized sequel to the somewhat generic, but incredibly difficult "Dark Forces" (still considered one of the "marathon games" since it lacked mid-level save, gave you limited lives, etc). This great new feature, was unfortunately abused by what came to be known as the "honor community" who insisted that this and ONLY this type of play was to be used on public FFA servers.
If you survive these many missions (especially a rather cheap sequence on Nar Shaddaa where every step you can be instantly killed by snipers that you have no way of detecting. You see, Raven software implemented a new feature into the game, based on a phenomenon from Heretic II. They could make a player "explode" (die instantly) or teleport into a hole. Powers that didn't exist in SP are present in MP, such as Team Heal, Team Energize (grants force mana to nearby teammates when activated), Drain (sucks mana away from your enemy and uses it to heal a Dark Jedi), etc.
Unfortunately these other modes (CTY, JM, Holocron) were quite unpopular with gamers. Another criticism of the game was the lack of a class based, objective based gametype. While the game saw a good year of gameplay, the community was not without controversy. There is ONE vehicle driving sequence, where the player briefly takes control of an AT-ST walker and goes against a slew of enemies.
For example Force Speed in SP slows the entire world down, except the player who speeds up 2x-4x in all of his movements for a limited time. Now finally the JK series was given dedicated servers and a built in server browser for multiplayer, demo recording, cheat protection via pure servers, more editing support, and the potential for larger numbers of players online with minimal lag. The lightsaber battles that you'll face in this game (mainly from the 3rd person viewpoint) are incredibly cool and cinematic. These mods were typically transparent (did not require a joining player to download them in order to see them), and so many confused them with "hacks" and cheats. Star Wars has been plagued in recent years by lackluster or even awful game titles. Instead of fighting in a conventional deathmatch manner, many players chose instead to agree to fight each other with their staves only, one on one. Still, such flaws can be overlooked in an otherwise satisfying single player campaign. Now finding secrets only gives you the benefit of finding some extra ammo or health, and all force powers are preassigned based on the level you're at.
Such a thing was in development, but canceled due to lack of time on the part of the developers. In Heretic II, the third person game allowed you to use powers, much like the Jedi powers in this series, and also use a melee weapon, the staff. They also had the stun baton, but it was weak, and fairly useless, being even weaker than the "gauntlet" from Quake 3. If you're an FPS gamer or a Star Wars fan (or both), this is definitely worth getting, just be patient when it comes to Single Player, it WILL get better after those first few levels. These missions are well crafted espionage and search & destroy type encounters, where Kyle is accompanied by his "will they or won't they" female partner Jan Ors, the Rebel Spy you originally convinced a young Kyle Katarn to leave the Empire when she showed him that the death of his father was not the fault of the Rebels as he'd been tricked into believing. An Imperial Remnant Admiral dons a lightsaber resistant (Cortosis) suit of powered armor with a personal force field generator for instance.
There is no bloodshed in the game (Raven software's demo at E3 featured blood spurting action, but this was removed in the official release, and the dismemberment with the lightsabers was toned way down to keep the "T" rating), but some German gamers came up with a neat little blood patch that can still be found on the internet. It's a pity that the SP game in Jedi Outcast does nothing to prepare you for multiplayer (unlike JK1/MotS) and that unlike JK1, does not feature multiple paths/endings (your character is forced to stay on the "Light Side" although you can use both light and dark side powers as they become available to you). These first few missions thus become rather tedius to get through. Players could heal themselves, leap dozens of feet in the air, run super fast, become invisible, choke enemies, hurl blasts of force powered flame, create a protective temporary shield or lightning, etc. The issue of a class/objective based gametype was addressed in Jedi Academy (though again, it was criticized for its initial bugginess and the general lack of maps for it). and CTY ("Capture the Ysalamiri") a twist on CTF, in which the flag carriers lose the ability to use Force powers whilst carrying, but also cannot have force powers used on them, creating a need for much more strategy and protection, and eliminating the possibility of "rambo" style domination of the game by skilled flag carriers.
Most of these changes didn't go far enough in satisfying the SP lightsaber fighting fans, and went too far for those who appreciated the lightsaber as a weapon that was useful in deathmatch, rather than something only useful for duels. The final patch addressed this issue by putting in a switch to allow the lightsaber damage to be doubled for normal gameplay or halved for dueling, and the blocking to be increased or decreased at the server admin's discretion. Since the game takes place long after the events of Return of the Jedi, much Expanded Universe material is drawn on, so if you're familiar with this material, it feels authentic. Another unfortunate side effect was the way in which these mods were often used to enforce the "honor" type of gameplay, which essentially broke up a server into a small group that dueled, and the rest who spent their time chatting, and using "emotes" (which were simply animations taken from single player and implemented into multiplayer to make the character sit, do a pose, kiss, or something else). The market was flooded with imitations.
The attention to detail shows just how geeky (in a good way) the development team had to be in order to make a game of this calibur. Additionally, via console commands, full dismemberment could be turned back on, meaning heads, torsos, and other limbs could be easily hacked off of enemies (or the player). It was known as "SAGA" and the remnants of it were dredged up and modified to a playable form by third party mod makers. The Force powers from the first game all change in the manner in which they operate. A large contingent of gamers took over various servers (abusing the "vote to kick" privileges, for example) that were devoted to FFA, in order to enforce a bunch of unofficial "rules" insisting that a deathmatch is not a deathmatch, but a place for players to stand in line waiting to challenge each other for a lightsaber duel.
Some criticized the game for being "too Quakeish" in multiplayer or the way in which it allowed anyone to be a Jedi (though this criticism would apply to the first game as well). They could take away the player's ability to type, move, or defend themselves. Merc" in which a server could force players to choose between a gun toting character with no force powers whatsoever or a Jedi with normal options, who could not pick up guns or use most of the gadget item pickups (portable force field, stationary blaster turret) being restricted to sabers only. The game also featured movie quality (though cheesy) pre-rendered cutscenes, voice acting, and vast, vertigo inducing levels with multiple objectives per mission.
Another problem in the community were the controversy over the patches. Some Star Wars fans may find the storyline or some of the gimmicks in the game hokey, but bear in mind, true believers, that all of this stuff has precedents in the Expanded Universe, even the silliest things. While the sequel, Jedi Academy, would introduce area specific damage, headshots in this game don't make any difference whatsoever. In the earlier game, finding secret areas gave you extra "Force Stars" that could be assigned to custom powers.
There are also a few "get behind the gun and take out a bunch of enemies" portions, that are all too brief. Sadly, these early missions are not as fun as they sound and not nearly as fun as the similar missions in Dark Forces or Jedi Knight. Over time, especially in the community of the sequel, Jedi Academy, this "honor community" was opposed by many players who wished to get back to a more "pure" kind of deathmatch experience, which was much closer to the gameplay of JK and MotS online. Another remnant of this game mode were present in the bonus "unsupported" gametype known as "Jedi Vs. Still, overall, Jedi Outcast was a colorful and welcome addition to the series, updating an already fantastic FPS title that stood out from the crowd, with a modern engine, and introducing it (and quality Star Wars gaming) to a much wider audience. Jedi Master, in which picking up a lightsaber makes one player "it" giving them extra health and nearly all force powers with increased mana regeneration, vs.
Another missing feature is the "morality scale" from the first game in which killing noncombatants pushed you closer to the "Dark Side" while saving them from enemies pushed you closer to the "Light Side" (staying true to one side or the other granted you a bonus force power near the end of the game). I'd say though that they are changed for the better. The enemies move so fast and the projectiles so slow, that it's possible for Stormtroopers to sidestep "laser bolts" and take multiple hits without going down. Jedi Vs.
This was due to two powers in particular, Drain (which was used to suck away mana from the enemy until they had none) and Grip (which was not so much used to kill enemies as for the levitation effect it now had, which could be used to dump opponents off cliffs or into the path of a deadly swing). The FPS genre really took off with titles like Doom and then Quake, capitalizing on gore, polygons and multiplayer to catapult them to the forefront of popular FPS games. The budget busting cinematic cutscenes of JK1 with their cheesy (but lovable) live action and CG were replaced with fully CGI short sequences (for the space sequences) and "in-game" machinima type cutscenes for the rest of the game with some decent voice acting, humor, and Star Wars/Dark Forces references. In Jedi Outcast you're always on the side of right, and your actions in game have no effect on what powers you are granted access to, which decreases replay value somewhat. This is due to the fact that the conventional weapons in Jedi Outcast single player just feel weak and ineffectual. Another feature missing from this game that the original JK had, was the ability to customize your force powers in SP. Until finally, a new game was announced, and in 2002, the world was gifted with Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. To this day, the game maintains hundreds of servers (less than Jedi Academy however), but the player usually has to ask if it's an "Honor" server or not, in order to avoid being "punished" and IP banned without warning.
However by this time the community was divided between server owners who wished to run the patch and those who did not. That is to say, the lightsaber was "nerfed" in order to make duels last longer, with the unfortunately side effect that this discouraged its use in deathmatch or team based gameplay. Jedi Knight had a steeper learning curve than your average run 'n' gun FPS, in that it gradually allowed the player to earn "Force Powers" that enhanced your combat, navigation or survival abilities. Unfortunately, some sequences of the game are not much fun, like some of the platform jumping sequences, or the stupid puzzles. the rest of the players who have only Force jump and conventional weapons (a reverse of "KFY" for Mysteries of the Sith players).
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